


Cold in My Bones

by Cocopops1995



Series: Hurt Me With Your Words [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Collectors, Gen, Hypothermia, Keith (Voltron)-centric, keith needs so many hugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 20:04:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11858706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cocopops1995/pseuds/Cocopops1995
Summary: Keith wakes up cold and alone, and finds that he's been reduced to nothing more than an interesting specimen in a couple of wealthy aliens' collection.





	Cold in My Bones

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rangergirl3](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangergirl3/gifts).



When Keith started coming to, the first thing he noticed was the cold and he grimaced. He’d always hated the cold. When he was living in the desert he would spend the nights wrapped in as many blankets as he could find to keep himself warm when he slept. He missed those blankets right now.

The second thing he noticed was the smell. Clean and sterile. Like a hospital. Keith’s grimace deepened. He’d spent more than enough time in hospital emergency rooms throughout his childhood. He wasn’t eager to be back in one. But there was a strange undertone to the smell; something alien. Maybe he was in the Castle’s infirmary, he did have a splitting headache now that he thought about it. He was probably just waking up from being in one of the healing pods.

But… he didn’t remember an attack of any sort. The last thing he remembered was being at that boring party the latest planet they had freed’s royal family had thrown for them. Everything had been fine. Could he have been so badly injured that his memory had been affected too? He supposed it was possible. Then again, the last time he’d been in a healing pod he’d stepped out of it before his body had even had a chance to register the cold. Why was it taking so long to let him out? There was only one way to find out. He opened his eyes.

And blinked up at a completely unfamiliar ceiling. 

His body began moving before he could even think about it. He pushed himself to his feet and settled into a fighting stance, ready for some kind of attack. His mind switched into overdrive, taking in every little detail as he surveyed his surroundings. 

He was in what seemed to be some kind of glass containment unit. The floor was square-shaped and he didn’t have much space to move in, each side couldn’t have been more than 2 meters long. The wall reached up to the ceiling, which must have been about 3 or 4 meters above Keith’s head. He also noticed that he was only wearing his undersuit. Someone had removed his armour.

Outside of his glass prison, Keith could see more similar boxes. Each contained a different alien. Some were furry, others were scaly, all of them had something unusual about them. And they were all on display. Like a - Keith froze - like a collection. 

Immediately Keith’s thoughts sprang back to the boring party they had been at, and the unsettling encounter he’d had.

***

“Fascinating!” 

Keith turned at the exclamation to face a couple of very tall humanoid aliens, that were obviously not native to this planet, looking at him as if he were some exotic animal. The looks on their faces put him on edge immediately.

He crossed his arms and scowled, “Can I help you?”

“Oh, forgive me, paladin. I did not mean to be rude. My name is Agrairt, and this is my wife, Irikub. It is an honor to meet one of the defenders of the universe.”

Agrairt was about four heads taller than Keith and had paper-white skin. He had sharp features and long white hair that hung around his shoulders. His eyes, his most striking feature, were large and almond shaped, and the whole eye shone a brilliant blue. His wife looked much the same, only a little shorter and with more feminine features. They kind of reminded Keith of ancient, mythical elves. They gave Keith the creeps. But he had to be civil.

“It’s nice to meet you, too.” he said, and he reluctantly dropped his arms and reached out to shake Agrairt’s hand. 

The alien man took shook his hand with a pleased smile.

“Pardon me for asking, paladin.” Agrairt said, apparently getting right down to business, “But are you aware that you have Galra blood?”

Keith had not been expecting that at all, “How did you -” he cut himself off before he could say anymore in his shock.

Agrairt smiled, “Oh we Nannea have an excellent sense of smell, and your scent is unmistakably Galra.”

Keith tensed and took a step back and began scanning the crowd for his friends. The last time he’d come across a race that could smell that he was Galra he’d nearly been stoned to death. He was absolutely not eager to repeat that experience. 

Agrairt obviously noticed Keith’s uneased and raised a hand placatingly, “Do not worry yourself, paladin. We have no intention of bringing any harm to you. We merely have a request for you.”

“A request?” Keith asked, his gaze met Lance’s across the room, and Keith hoped that his face conveyed his need for some sort of back up. He glanced back at Agrairt, “What kind of request?”

Agrairt’s smile grew, “Well, you see, my wife and I share a great interest in unique life-forms. Especially hybrids.”

His wife nodded eagerly, and she let out a little giggle, “We have built up quite the collection.”

“Yes, we have indeed.” Agrairt said, patting his wife’s hand that rested on his bent arm, “We would greatly appreciate it if you agreed to join our collection.”  
Keith spluttered.

Lance materialised beside him and said: “Hey man,” he said, laying a hand on Keith’s shoulder, “Princess Allura is looking for you. She said it’s urgent.” he looked at Agrairt and his wife with an expression that Keith couldn’t quite read, “Sorry, but it seems like you’ll have to find someone else to be in your collection.”

Agrairt and his wife didn’t look happy, but Keith didn’t care. He was just glad to have a reason to get away from them. 

“Hey, don’t go anywhere without one of us tonight, okay?” Lance said as they made their way to where to Shiro and Allura were talking with some of the planet’s leaders, “I don’t trust those two.”

Keith just nodded, because neither did he.

And now it seemed like their suspicions had been confirmed. Keith didn’t see the Nannean couple anywhere, but he was sure that they were the ones who had locked him up here. He needed to get out. Keith began inspecting his tank for any weaknesses that he could exploit to get out

As it turned out. Getting out was easier said than done. Keith searched every inch of the tank for what must have been close to 30 minutes and couldn’t find anything. Not a seam. Not even a hairline crack. Nothing. He did discover that the walls of the tank were definitely made of something much stronger than glass when he’d punched at it out of sheer frustration. 

It didn’t take him long to start shivering. With an ever-growing sense of dread, Keith realised that the temperature had steadily grown colder while he’d been looking for a way out. He wrapped his arms around himself and tucked his fingers under his armpits and began to pace to keep his body heat up. 

As he paced, he focused on the various aliens kept in various tanks around him. They were all completely docile. Some stared back at him with blank expressions, as if he wasn’t very interesting, but they didn’t have anything better to look at. He saw one of them’s breath come out in a puff of steam. He exhaled his own puff of steam a second later and a shudder that had nothing to do with the cold ran through him as he suddenly figured out why all the aliens were so docile. It wasn’t just his tank that was cold. It was all of them. The Nannean couple must have been keeping the temperature in the tanks low to keep their collection of aliens from fighting them.  
Keith’s breathing picked up as the panic he had been fighting down finally started boiling over in his chest. 

He banged on one of the glass walls and called out: “Hey! You can’t keep me locked in here! Human’s don’t do well in the cold! LET ME OUT!!”

But there was no reply. The other aliens kept staring at him with those blank expressions. The Nannean couple was still nowhere to be seen. Keith knew, with a terrifying amount of clarity, that if he didn’t get out soon, he would get hypothermia and die. He felt the temperature drop again. His breathing picked up even more. He knew if he didn’t calm down he would start hyperventilating, but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t want to die here, as a part of some weird alien collection. He banged on the walls and screamed until his voice grew hoarse. He needed to get out. He wanted to get out!!

Finally he slumped down to the ground and curled up into himself. He was shivering violently now. Every breath came out in a burst of steam and his fingers had turned blue. He concentrated on breathing deeply and trying to calm down. Watching as each breath left his body in a long cloud of steam. 

Patience, he thought, yields focus.

He closed his eyes and tried to focus. Focus on what? He didn’t know. What had he needed to focus on when Shiro told him that the first time? Probably his homework, or something. But that wasn’t what Keith needed to focus on now. What he needed to focus on was… was… was the red lion! Red! Keith’s eyes flew open. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of his lion until now! She could find him and get him out of here! He scrunched his eyes closed again and focused on his bond with the red lion.

But, the space in his mind that Red usually occupied, was disconcertingly empty. He didn’t… she was… gone. She’d left him. She’d left, just like every other good person in his life. She’d left him and now he was all alone in this frigid tank. He was going to freeze to death. He was going to die alone.

Keith pressed his forehead into his knees and fought to keep himself from crying. He should be used to being alone. He’d been left alone enough times already that it shouldn’t hurt anymore. But it did. Just like it had hurt when his father had left. Just like it had hurt when every foster parent he’d had afterwards had given him back and left. Just like it had Shiro had left on that Kerberos mission. And now Red had left him too. It shouldn’t hurt. He should be used to everyone leaving. He should be used to it. It shouldn’t hurt. But it did. He lost the battle and broke out into broken sobs.

He must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next time he became aware, it was the sound of something exploding. He blinked blearily at the movement that was going on around him.The floor he was slumped on seemed to rock with an explosion. He didn’t understand it. The last clear thought he’d had was that of being alone. Everybody had left, there shouldn’t be any movement, let alone explosions. It didn’t make sense, and his head was too heavy with exhaustion for him to really care about what did and didn’t make sense. So he closed his eyes and waited to fall asleep again. At least he wasn’t cold anymore. He was just numb, and numb was much better than being cold.

Then there were hands on him. On his face. Warm hands that burned his frozen skin. He thought he might have cried out, but he couldn’t be sure. He just knew that there were hands on him and that he needed to get away. It wasn’t good when people grabbed him while he was sleeping. He didn’t know why, he just knew that he had to get away. 

“Keith!” a voice calling his name broke through the fog in his brain and, for a moment, he stopped his weak struggling. He knew that voice. That voice was safe. That voice was warm.

“That’s it, Keith.” The Safe Voice said to him, “We’ve got you now. Everything will be okay now.”

The voice wrapped around him like one of his warm blankets from the shack in the desert and he relaxed. He was safe now, and - he thought as a presence made itself known in his mind, warming him up from the inside out like a well-stoked camp fire - maybe he wasn’t so alone after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Like my work? Please consider [buying me a coffee](https://ko-fi.com/W7W3KRCZ) :)


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